If there has ever been an architect to apply dialectical thinking with uncompromising programmatic force it would be Seiichi Shirai (1905-1983). Populated with forms at once sui generis and evocative of medieval European buildings, modulated by a hypersensitive attention to material and scales of detail, impregnated with eroticism, and intimately bound up with his passionate interests in book design, antique artifacts, calligraphy, text, and typography, Shirai's architecture has been prized by clients and users and became a subject of fascination among artists and the public. At the same time its position outside of the standard genealogies of modern Japanese architecture has long posed a conundrum for critics.

Shirai himself insisted that architecture be experienced unhindered by theoretical "window dressing". This first systematic treatment of Shirai's oeuvre takes up the architect's plea by revealing that there is, in fact, a rich structural logic to be teased out of the buildings themselves, one that became increasingly sophisticated and dialectically charged throughout the course of his career.

The book comprises two essays by Maki Iisaka centred around the themes of text and inversion and a photo essay by David Kerr.

The preface is available for download.